Money-raising schemes

Premies team,
Snowed-in today in North Carolina, so my mind wandered to thinking of y'all in Montana. You're probably used to dealing with the white stuff, we ain't.

Anyway, I got thinking of ways you might be able to raise some funds to keep the good work you're doing on track, and I thought it might be an interesting forum to start (hope I didn't miss one that already exists) and tap into ideas from your permies followers.

Here's a thought:
CafePress has a program called Tfund that let's you design t-shirts (and other promotional-type products) and earn money selling them through CafePress.

Granted, the world doesn't need a whole lot more plastic goo-gah sh*t, but there are some useful items that we all seem to buy now and then, such as t-shirts or coffee mugs. There might be some organic cotton t-shirt options. I haven't checked that out yet. Good part about this is that the program does all the sourcing of materials, creation, payment collection, warehousing, and distribution. You just have to do the promotion.

http://www.tfund.com/



{ADDED CONTENT}: I did some scouting around the TFund website. Seems like the options for products is limited to one type of t-shirt and one type of hoodie. Instead, I'd recommend setting up your own CafePress account to do basically the same thing, but have all of their product options,including organic cotton t-shirts. http://www.cafepress.com Maybe a baby's onesy that says "Permaculture is My Future" ? {END OF ADDED CONTENT}


I'm sure your designer on the team can come up with some great graphics. Maybe even use a few of the card deck images.

Possibilities of statements on shirts or products (don't forget to add the web address somewhere):

Permaculturists Do It in Hugelkultur Beds
I <heart> Premies (ask people to wear them at Permaculture Voices)
I <heart> Permaculture -- Ask me about it !
Hugelkultur Just Might Save Civilization As We Know It
Permaculture Just Might Save Civilization As We Know It
Ask me about Permaculture
Permaculture for a Resilient Future
Plant a Food Forest--Save the Planet
Biodiversity is the Answer to Many Questions
King of Permaculture (card image)
Queen of Permaculture (card image)
Jack of all Permaculture Trades (card image)
Permaculture Ace (card image)
Eat Your Lawn - Plant Some Food
Live in Abundance -- Permaculture
Our Economic Wealth Starts with the Sun and Soil
Strive for Abundance -- Permaculture
Chemical-Free, Nutrient-Rich -- Permaculture
I'm Hot --I use a Rocket Stove Mass Heater
Soil Builder -- Earth Saver
Never Too Soon to Grow Some Food
Etc.

Thom Illingworth
Greensboro, NC

There's a new crowdfunding website named Patreon that's starting to get popular among podcasters, bloggers, musicians and various other types of online content-creators who release relatively small creations on a frequent basis.



Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Patreon campaigns are ongoing. Patrons pledge to give a certain amount of money to creators each time new content is posted. For instance, a person might sign up to automatically pay a podcaster $1 every time a new episode goes up. It's similar to the micropayments idea people were talking about years ago.

One nice thing is that it's not high-pressure like getting a large amount of money for a project and then needing to make a deadline. The creator gets paid for posting content, so if they create more they make people happy and get more money, but if they create less they don't have a bunch of people feeling ripped off. They do have an ability for Patrons to set a monthly limit on donations, so if the creator gets crazy productive one month people won't end up going broke.

Another nice thing is that it allows creators to keep their content free while still getting support from dedicated fans. It also allows the creator to give patrons different rewards at different levels of support. For instance, one podcast I listen to gives all patrons who pledge $0.01 or more per episode access to a small amount of additional content per week, while those who pledge $5 or more per episode get "Inner circle" email access and their name in the show's credits. There's another podcast that holds a random drawing every month to give prizes away to its patrons (maybe a good way to get rid of extra decks of cards, DVDs, etc.?).

Looking at the FAQ for creators Patreon takes ~3% to pay for credit card processing fees and 5% for themselves. This means the creator gets to keep about 92% of the money.

Here's a link to their website: Patreon
Here's a link to their FAQ: For Creators

I did cafepress with coderanch. I just didn't like it. further, we have heaps of permies swag - people just rarely buy it.

I looked at the patreon stuff. Interesting. I need to think about it and see what i can dream up.

x-posting

Have you considered "gold memberships" to the forum? I mean a simple thing some forums do is ask a small donation/membership fee to enable users to have avatars. A higher level of support gets you a gold star - or maybe in this case a gold apple.

This could really help with cash flow.

Cj Verde wrote:x-posting

Have you considered "gold memberships" to the forum? I mean a simple thing some forums do is ask a small donation/membership fee to enable users to have avatars. A higher level of support gets you a gold star - or maybe in this case a gold apple.

This could really help with cash flow.

Yup. We were going to call it "pie". Development started two years ago. Then stopped. Then was dropped. Just seems to not be in the cards for us.

paul wheaton wrote:Drew,

You might want to take this up in this thread: https://permies.com/t/32640/tnk/Money-raising-schemes
I think you might be describing "patreon" in that thread.

Paul, I am in a way describing that but the better option in my experience for ease of use is paypal's recurring billing platform
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_payflow-recurring-billing-faq-outside

I've used it many times and have had a lot of success with it. My point is mostly that it would be worth the hour or two to set it up and send it out in an email and talk about it in a podcast because the ROI is so high.
If you get 10 folks to sign up with the time you invest you'd probably get about 10-15 people to sign up which is about 4k. In response to the "permies swag" it would just be easier, and people would appreciate it, to just give some of the merch away with the membership. IMHO its a win-win option that helps you plan for future projects financially. Any further discussion I will move over to the "patreon" thread.

-Lowly Peon

Patreon + Video camera + Paul* = state of the Lab podcast.

released once a week/month

20-30 mins wandering around the lab property w/vidcam talking about the latest projects

And/or upcoming events

no script, no editing - Just a monolog on 1-3 subjects related to the lab property

* or any of the core members

$15 for monthly episodes
$3-5 for weekly

Eugene Rominger wrote:Patreon + Video camera + Paul* = state of the Lab podcast.

released once a week/month

20-30 mins wandering around the lab property w/vidcam talking about the latest projects

And/or upcoming events

no script, no editing - Just a monolog on 1-3 subjects related to the lab property

* or any of the core members

$15 for monthly episodes
$3-5 for weekly

Yay permaculture!


Patreon is kind neat in that it allows a split economic model and a choose your own level of supporting your favorite artists kind of way. I would gladly, (insert blinky,bold,purple tags) gladly (remove blinky,bold,purple tags) add paul to a patronage stream based on what is already being produced... podcasts, articles, write ups on experiments and kickstarters! ( who says a kickstarter can't be art worthy of patronage?)

After some more thought.

A unit of content creation could be the wobbit. I would argue any podcast, video, kickstarter campaign or major article (rewrite) could be wobbit.
In this case I do not see patreon as a vector for getting stuff. I see it more as a vector for getting money going in the right direction for more positive happenings rather than the social building of the site and comments and all that hassle.


Schedule of stuff.

$1 : go team, thank you.
$2 : go team, thank you + digital recognition somewhere.
$5 : after a few wobbits, it should be considered that a piece of wood from the lab be sent to you ( shipping is expensive )
$10 : after a few wobbits, you might get a lump of clay
$15 : after a few wobbits, you might get a rock
$20 : after a few wobbits, you might get a pretty rock,
$35 : after a few wobbits, Uhmmm... something? make something up!
$50 : after a few wobbits, you will get a choice of a pretty polished rock in your favorite hue that is available on the lab.
$75 : after a few wobbits, you will get a pretty polished rock with the Wheaton Labs seal of approval and a note of thanks for the help.
$100 : after a few wobbits, you may have a stone/monument (respectfully small) placed in the garden of remembrance and contemplation on the lab.
$500 : Seriously? wtf, okay, something that takes little human time away from the projects that the funding goes for.


With the extra bonus of random rewards based on accrued wobbits (if that is available information). e.g. hats, shirts, mason jar of fresh base camp well water. Good stuff.


Someone would only need to denote which things were done, which things counted as wobbits (remastering a podcast meh' maybe not), and some updates every few weeks in the content stream.


If or when a patreon feed starts becoming larger money per wobbit, then more can be done on the social / using people time up (apparently monthly google hangouts is common).


There are people in this world that are desperate to help out. We have been trained to throw money at problems when we can't figure out how to help specifically. Catching thrown money is a plan.

Tom Rutledge wrote:After some more thought.
...

After more thought.

More price points.

$3 : permission will be granted for you to speak to softly about permaculture to a houseplant, and how awesome you are for helping.
$4 : permission will be granted for you to speak loudly and boisterously about homesteading, permaculture and how awesome you are for helping to any tree or goat.
$8 : previous level + sprinkles and permacutlurally acceptable glitter
$12 : a lump of lab clay with Someones hand/fist print in it. Who's print? It will be labeled. can you collect the entire collectable set?
$32 : a fired lump of lab clay with someones hand/fist print.

I am wired in a very weird way.

I think that if I were in a position of obligation, then I would probably stop everything.

I am getting better at setting up income streams. But they are always a little different. I'll create something or do something and then say something like "Bart and I will mash it into a DVD for $20". That works pretty good because most of the work is then done!

There are people in this world that are desperate to help out. We have been trained to throw money at problems when we can't figure out how to help specifically. Catching thrown money is a plan.

And I most certainly need to collect that!

And, at the same time, if I put up a patreon thing, there could be 20 people that support it and 15 of them could be of the position "I expect A and I have not had enough A!"


I need to get kickstarters rolling again.

How about this: rather than something that is a benefit to me, what about something for the gappers? What if we had a thread that the gappers started that would make amazon links (complete with the richsoil affiliate thing-a-ma-bob) that would make for a lovlier life for the gappers who are doing the real work here? Maybe books, DVDs, bedding, sleeping bags .... snacks! Kitchen tools ... maybe there could be a list of stuff that would be cool to get used: tents, sleeping bags, winter wear, plates, utensils, books, dvds, knives, gloves .... maybe a care package once in a while. Maybe this Christmas we should put a shout out for Christmas Cards for gappers? And people could put a fiver in there like grandma used to do - and when they have a healthy pile, the gappers could decide how to spend it.

Oh! Here's an idea: what if I got "tip the web" set up so that a person could "tip" anybody on permies whether they wanted it or not. Then when you see a picture that you like and think "that really feeds my soul" then you could throw a couple bucks in. Thus encouraging gappers to post more pics/vids.

paul wheaton wrote: I am wired in a very weird way.

And that's a good thing.

paul wheaton wrote:

I think that if I were in a position of obligation, then I would probably stop everything.

And that would be a bad thing. Thus it is a good thing the default Patreon thing has no obligation from the artist side. When there are obligations for higher donation tiers, that is a voluntary thing. In the purest of sense it seems to be built like kickstarter but for whatever the artist seems to want to do and in a per piece reoccurring way. The cool part is patrons have the option of paying after an item is produced. They can stop payment, max payment or bow out at any time if the artist starts producing things that no longer merit reward. It's more setup to reward an artist for something they are already doing.

paul wheaton wrote:
...

How about this: rather than something that is a benefit to me, what about something for the gappers? What if we had a thread that the gappers started that would make amazon links (complete with the richsoil affiliate thing-a-ma-bob) that would make for a lovlier life for the gappers who are doing the real work here? Maybe books, DVDs, bedding, sleeping bags .... snacks! Kitchen tools ... maybe there could be a list of stuff that would be cool to get used: tents, sleeping bags, winter wear, plates, utensils, books, dvds, knives, gloves .... maybe a care package once in a while. Maybe this Christmas we should put a shout out for Christmas Cards for gappers? And people could put a fiver in there like grandma used to do - and when they have a healthy pile, the gappers could decide how to spend it.

Oh! Here's an idea: what if I got "tip the web" set up so that a person could "tip" anybody on permies whether they wanted it or not. Then when you see a picture that you like and think "that really feeds my soul" then you could throw a couple bucks in. Thus encouraging gappers to post more pics/vids.

Works for me.

Library donation is on the way (wrong address though).

I'm looking into software modifications again where a person might pay $20 for a "pie" and then would have bonus features for a year. And they could give away slices of pie (months).

I got several more bumps this week about patreon-esque stuff.

I suppose I could create a patreon thing that says "here are things I have made in the past. I cannot promise that I will make more things in the future, but ...." I could even list some of the projects that are to be attempted.

Then there is something about patreon levels. Different levels get different candy. So I would need to figure out what the candy would be.

This year the big projects are: the berm shed, the freezer wofati, an upgrade for wofati 0.7, an upgrade for the tipi, humus well, air well, and, of course, ANT VILLAGE!

I like the idea of paying somebody to put up lots of pictures, or putting up lots of videos to my video channel.

Oh, and the lemon tree project. Etc., etc., etc.

Supposing I am going to move forward with this, what might be some existing patreon thing-a-ma-bobs that I might want to model after? What would my pledge level stuff be?